Dairy farmers at breaking point over prices, warns McGuinness

DAIRY farmers in Ireland are at breaking point owing to extremely low milk prices and the lack of credit from banks.

Ireland East MEP Mairead McGuinness issued the warning at the official opening of the National Spring Fair in Naas, Co Kildare.

She said the crisis in the global dairy market was a crisis for every single dairy farming family in Ireland.

“These families have little say and no control over the milk price they receive. They cannot survive under current circumstances.

“It is blunt and as painful as that. We are talking about the actual survival of dairy farming in Ireland. This sector of agriculture is a vital one in terms of rural and regional development.

“It keeps thousands of workers in jobs in the dairy processing sector, in addition to the thousands of farm families who rely on it,” she said.

Ms McGuinness said that, at EU level, measures to assist the market have been introduced.

“While welcome, these measures have not stopped milk prices falling below the costs of production and the commission needs to look again at the situation.

“We need greater price transparency. The market is not working as it should.

“If the market is not providing a fair price to producers, then we have market failure and further and immediate action is needed,” she said.

“We need to know who gets what from the final price paid by consumers.”

Ms McGuinness said milk production across the EU was down in response to the market situation.

However, globally, production in some of the major third country dairy producers, such as the US, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and Brazil, has increased significantly.

“Consumption of dairy products has unfortunately declined because of the global economic downturn and a decline in oil revenues.

“We have come a long way from the exceptionally high milk prices of 2007 to today where producers see their hard work and effort dismissed by processors and major multiples by disastrous price,” she said.